[Azura Rayume]

Jesse had left the pair of them alone, and the rest had wandered off on their own, meaning Klein and Marinus had to find some way to amuse themselves for the time being. The knight, awkward in his casual clothes, and the horse-sized reptile had no idea how to do that, but they were willing to try.

"Any ideas?" Klein asked, fiddling with the screen floating in front of him as he stretched out over Marinus's back. No one else could see it, or so he had gathered, but he spent idle time messing with it despite the odd looks. Going into battle and only a level three? He had thought his experiences would have amounted to more than that by now. He was, apparently, half way to level four, so he might find something around here that could give him a bit of a boost.

The Evren wrinkled his muzzle, thinking. "Maybe they have some carnival games we could try?" He turned his head to see if the knight on his back would give a response.

Klein stuck up an arm with his thumb up. "Sounds good to me," he responded, flicking his screen closed. "Maybe whatever we find will give me what I need to level up."

[SpringsSong]

The three Paragon females were, in their natural forms, otherwise out-of-place among all the people who were... well, humanoid in form.  Although they would have been slightly smaller if placed next to their masculine counterparts (or, in the case of the Pipe, a DesertHorn or a Primal), they were still fairly large--ranging from about twenty to twenty-three feet tall.

Now, why they were at the festival...

"Why are we here, again?" asked the Windgill, who ran a claw through her brown crest-feathers.  "Surely, there is some sort of work we could be doing back in the forest to help prepare for the Root's arrival--"

"There have been reports that there might be a war brewing, Airina," responded a purple-and-pink Rockbeak, who was looking around the festival curiously.  "Aila reported it to Rath'li, and since Rath'li is currently in charge of the fighters and otherwise unable to fight himself, he said that we should be sent to aid in the defenses of the Purist territory."

"Why, I don't understand, Ellandira," the Pipe said, flicking her tail slightly.  "Purine, Imperial--what does it matter as long as the forest remains untouched?  That is our home turf, not these cities," she said.

"Who's to say, Ioraedra, that the forests would be untouched?" Ellandira rebutted.  "We may have travelled to this city, but we are defending our home all the same--oh!  Do pardon us," she said, looking down at the Evren and its companion that she had nearly run into--or over.

[Kylo]

(Don't mind me, Talcen just likes to get involved in everything.)

The slightly crazed fellox tried not to stand out too much as he made his way through the festival once again. His nose sniffed the air eagerly as he tried to pick out who was most likely already sided with the purines, and who was a guest. the more information he could gather the better. He looked up in suspicion at a strange looking knight riding some sort of reptile and grinned widely, trying not to laugh at how ridiculous they looked. He trotted over towards him, his tails swishing lightly behind him as his markings glowed brightly. Ah yes they certainly looked like purines. Maybe this was his chance to get some information out of someone.

Right when he was about to speak up three paragon stumbled on in and interrupted him with talk of the army. Well at least he didn't have to think much on them to figure out they were purines just from what they said. Anyway he could just use all of them now for his purposes.

"Excuse me there, but could any of you please tell me more about these purines? I am writing a report for a local newspaper on the festival and would like to know more about the people running, if you don't mind."

[1]

[Azura Rayume]

One minute, they were alone; the next, the pair found themselves surrounded by strangers. Luckily Marinus had the agility to dodge the Paragon without running into the Fellox or dislodging Klein. "It's quite alright," the Evren said, doing one of the things he rarely had to do: look up to see someone's face. "Enjoying the festival?"

Seeing that his companion had a handle on that situation, Klein turned his attention to the Fellox. "The Purines?" He sounded almost confused as he swung his legs over to sit sideways on Marinus's back. "I'm afraid I couldn't tell you much. We just joined and haven't been given much information ourselves. I think they're waiting until after the festival to tell us what exactly is going on." This guy didn't look much like a reported, but Klein wasn't very well versed in the ways of this world. For all he knew, all reporters could look like the Fellox. He would have expected less fire, though.

[SpringsSong]

The Purines?  Oh, right; the war.  Yes, that seemed to be the talk around the festival-goers right now.  Would the Imperials be so bold as to attack during the festival, or...?

"Well, I... I suppose for the three of us, it's more a matter of wanting to defend our homeland in the misty forests than anything else.  We have no previous ties otherwise, and as the Lambastian continent is our home... it just made the most sense to us, I suppose," Ellandira said, while the other two tilted their heads towards the curious Fellox.

"Oh, it's... well, interesting.  We've never been to something of this nature before, so we're a little uncertain as to... well, what to expect, exactly," Ioraedra answered the Evren.  "And everything seems a little... well, small to us.  Unlike some of the other dragons and other creatures we have encountered on our way here, we cannot take on a smaller, bipedal form," she added.

"I'm sure that everything is delightful, but... it is a little small for us.  But I'm sure we will still enjoy the festivities--and learn more about this land's lore and the Tear," Airina added.

[Kylo]

"Yes it does seem the festivities are not very well suited for larger creatures. Perhaps we can suggest to someone to remedy that?" He smiled pleasantly at the paragon and turned to the man on the reptile. "My name is Talcen, could I inquire as to everyone's names here?" The fellox sat down and grinned as he waited in turn for each person to introduce themselves.

So far they knew nothing which was disappointing as always. It seemed like no one knew anything here. It was enough to drive the fellox insane, or, er, more insane. He just had to hope the man was right and they would tell everyone more once the festival ended.

[Azura Rayume]

Klein leaned back to look up at the three Paragon, beaming up at them. He used to not like dragons, but this place had given him a different outlook on them. After all, he had gained the ability to shift into one if the time required it since he got here, though none of these three females looked quite like he did. "I can sympathize with the feeling of being out of place," he said, red gaze shifting from one face to the next. "And I'm looking forward to learning more about this as well. I haven't exactly been here too long, so I'm not well versed in the way things work."

Marinus had quickly tuned Klein out and switched to look at the Fellox who introduced himself. If the knight was about to start going on and on about where he came from, the Evren felt it best to just ignore him; it's not like what the guy said ever made any sense anyway. "I'm Marinus," he said, large eyes taking in the beast. It looked to him almost like something from the lab that had raised him, which he didn't like. Not that it was true, just that the thing was too familiar. "The chatterbox is Klein. And maybe seeing if there are things for larger creatures would be the best course of action." He stood high enough to look a Cavillion in the face himself and almost twice as long besides; though he had an easier time moving through the crowd than the Paragon, many places were uncomfortably tight.

[SpringsSong]

"Well, then, that would make quite a few of us!" Ioraedra said, chuckling as she lowered herself as best she could to look closer at the strangely-dressed man.  "After all, there is much that we can all learn from the others around here--and even each other."

"Ever the one with the bright outlook on things, aren't you, Ioraedra?" the Windgill asked, shaking her head as she laughed.  "My name is Airina, and my two clanmates are Ioraedra and Ellandira," she said, indicating the Pipe and Rockbeak as she spoke their names.  "We hail from a clan known as the Dragon Root, and were sent as fighters."

"We were actually sent by one of the oldest fighters in the clan," Ellandira said in a matter-of-factly tone.  "All our other fighters are still making the trek from Tengel to Whisper, and the old one has more than his share of injuries that would make fighting in a war too much for him."

[Kylo]

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you. Now about finding something we can all do..." The fellox mentally pulled up a map of the event in his head and began to analyze it. Fishing game, no...knock the bottles over with a ball game, no...food tables, maybe...craft tables, doubt it...a race competition, ah yes that will work. "There is a racing competition not too far from here going on. Perhaps that would be better suited for us larger creatures?"

He made mental note of what the paragon were speaking of this so called "Root" clan. Maybe it would prove useful in the future for fighting against the purines.

[Azura Rayume]

Klein was interested in this "clan" the Paragon spoke of, but the real importance of it sailed over his head. He guessed that, since these three did not seem to be of blood relation, it was more like the guilds he was more familiar with. A gathering place for like-minded individuals working toward a common goal. Only just for dragons. "Cool," he said, still smiling like a fool. "I don't actually come from here at all. I don't know what you understand of human culture, Airina, Ioraedra, and Ellandira, but I come from another world that apparently exists as a form of entertainment called a 'video game' here. It's weird, I know, but I retained all of my combat abilities. Just not my levels. And I am very much interested in lea- Race?"

Marinus rolled his eyes before refocusing on the Fellox. "Of all the times for him to get into all that again..," he grumbled, shaking his head. Whenever Klein launched into his "from a video game' speech, the Evren just tuned him out. As far as the reptile was concerned, it was all nonsense anyway. "The race sounds like it could be fun. We could at least go watch." No amount of begging and daring was going to get him to participate, he decided, since that was exactly the kind of thing Klein would sign him up for.